The dismal year in politics

5:58 PM,
Dec. 31, 2013

Written by

MICHAEL GERSON

The effects of the holiday season linger. Like the post-haunting Scrooge, I am as light as a feather, as happy as an angel, as merry as a schoolboy, determined to keep Christmas well. And still, when forced to consider it, 2013 was a dismal, cringe-inducing year in American politics. God help us, everyone.

It was a year in which the left, in implementing Obamacare, showed its worst face: overconfident, coercive, economically irrational and incompetent.

It was also a year in which the right, in the government shutdown, showed its worst face: angry, fractious, ideological and uninterested in ...